


Enjoy the View

by charmingwillow



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Muggle, F/M, long train rides, meet cute, shameless flirting, silent flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 00:07:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21718132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charmingwillow/pseuds/charmingwillow
Summary: A blast of frigid air barreled through the train car, followed by boisterous laughter.Lily looked up to see four men about her age in deep banter, oblivious to the world around them as they seemingly chose their seats at random: directly diagonal from her.Lily made an annoyed sort of glance at her window and the universe in general...of all the seats they could have chosen in a nearly empty train car… It had to be there. Right where she was in prime position to make accidental and awkward eye contact. For three and a half hours.or,Lily boards a mostly empty train and, when a group of friends sit diagonal from her, it all goes downhill from there.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 8
Kudos: 109





	Enjoy the View

**Author's Note:**

> Took a long train to Tokyo a few days ago...wrote this on accident...enjoy!

Lily Evans made herself comfortable in the crimson velvet seat, or did as best she could considering it was ramrod straight with no allowance for slouching, no button for reclining. She wedged her rolling suitcase as best she could by the window but her knees still pressed uncomfortably against it and she hoped, just on principal, that no one would choose the seat across from her.

But why would they? The train car was practically empty with only two other passengers, herself included.

Outside, the sun had started it's colorful descent into the horizon. It was just light enough that she could still see the industrial outline of the train station, but dark enough that she could clearly see her reflection in the dusty window. At that, she frowned at herself and adjusted a wisp of hair that awkwardly stuck out. Then she folded her hands in her lap, wriggled futility in her seat, and sighed. 

Three and a half hours until her destination. Three and a half hours to write her blog post, _not_ listen to music or stare out the window in contemplation…

Work-- that was what brought her out to this rural mountain village, not play. Lily drummed her fingers on the hard plastic of her suitcase and stared down her laptop bag. 

Right, well. Might as well get started…with, fine, some help from her music. Lily untangled her earbuds, dug her laptop out from her bag and got to it. She'd just started the music up when a blast of frigid air barreled through the train car, followed by boisterous laughter.

Lily looked up to see four men about her age in deep banter, oblivious to the world around them as they seemingly chose their seats at random: directly diagonal from her. 

Lily made an annoyed sort of glance at her window and the universe in general...of all the seats they could have chosen in a nearly empty train car… It had to be there. Right where she was in prime position to make accidental and awkward eye contact. For three and a half hours. 

'Course, she could always move. There were dozens of other seats but petty stubbornness kept her rooted to her uncomfortable one: she'd been there first.

The guys settled in, shoving their large backpacks where they could and pulling out snacks from the depths of their coat pockets, and then flinging them in the overhead racks. They never paused in their conversation, even as they shifted in their seats and pulled out their phones. 

Lily simply reached out to her own phone and turned up the music, almost managing to completely drown out their voices. Beneath them, the train rumbled and the conductor made his routine announcements as they left the station, though she didn't hear a single word.

Diagonal from Lily, one of the men looked up at the same time as her. Hazel eyes behind round glasses. His mouth formed a small O for the briefest of seconds before tipping into the smallest of smiles. Lily managed her own polite one but… She looked again. 

Hazel Eyes' smile broadened, and he sat against his seat, looking supremely pleased with the universe. 

  
  


Thirty minutes into the journey, Lily managed to write one whole paragraph of her post but the second one just couldn't… Couldn't cross the bridge from thought to actual words and sentences. She dug through her bag again, this time for her notebook and flicked through a few pages of notes. Her foot bobbed along with her music, more absorbed in that than her article. 

The sun had set almost completely while she'd been writing so looking out the window was pointless, but she still watched the vague, darkened shapes that blurred by, silently mouthing the words to the song that played in her ear. She spotted the half moon and watched that for a moment.

Barking laughter cut through her music and Lily glanced over sharply at the group of boys. One of them, the one with long black hair pulled in a bun, had his head thrown back while his friends at least tried to reign in their amusement behind _shh’s_ and hands. 

Hazel Eyes looked over at her, his shoulders shaking with laughter she couldn't hear, and he mouthed a 'sorry' and then rolled his eyes while pointing at his friend. That got him light smack but his smile didn't slip. Lily raised her hand over her mouth to hide her laugh. 

Somehow, it was all downhill from there.

Thing was…she just didn't have the mind to actually write, not right now. She should though; she was due for an upload on her blog and she had a long international flight the next day, followed by a few days of jet lag recovery. This train ride was the perfect chance to get it done and yet... 

Maybe it was restlessness finally kicking in, the excitement that went with traveling. It didn't matter whether it was going somewhere new or old, Lily loved the novelty that was being in motion. 

Staring through windows, be they trains, buses, or even planes, was practically a hobby of hers that rivaled her first love of writing. It was why she started her travel blog. 

So, an hour into her journey, Lily gave up: snapped her laptop shut and settled in completely, grimacing at how awful the seat continued to be. She compromised by propping her feet up onto the seat in front of her and draping her coat over her legs. 

Across the aisle, the guys' energy had flagged; they'd quieted a bit and the sandy haired one's eyes had glazed over with apparent boredom and-- she did it again: eye contact with Hazel Eyes. 

That was another thing: he was cute. More than that, he was actually quite handsome and that fact, coupled with their shared eyed contact, made her stomach flutter in appreciation. Yes, his dark hair was an absolute disaster, but he carried it with carefree endearment. He noticed her watching and his mouth tipped into a crooked little smile as he sent a hand through his hair, fluffing it up more. 

Yes, endearing.

Lily looked away and focused on getting lost in her music.

  
  


There was nothing but pitch darkness outside the window but she didn't mind. She tapped her foot to her music, lip synced some of the lyrics, sweeping her eyes across the car, going first to the overhead rack, then her bags, and then… To Hazel Eyes.

He was watching her. Not all the time, because she was sort of watching him too… But she caught his eyes enough times that she could recognize what amusement looked like on his face, and know that it was directed at her. 

The guys seemed to have broken off into their own individual interests and Lily's heart gave an actual skip when Hazel Eyes pulled out his own headphones.

Where she went with story driven pop songs and soundtracks, he seemed to have chosen power ballads. She couldn't read lips well, but she burst into actual laughter when he lip synced Total Eclipse of the Heart at her, his friends barely fazed, as if it was just _"same Hazel Eyes bullshit, different day."_

  
  


Ninety minutes into the journey, Lily needed the toilet, so she stumbled on down the aisle and sorta, kinda of hoped Hazel Eyes enjoyed this new view…

  
  


Two hours in, Lily felt the first full tingles of boredom. She wasn't going back to her blog post though, that was a hopeless cause at the moment. She settled on cleaning out her bag, like all sensible bloggers who had lip sync battles on trains do.

(She’d performed Helpless, while he went for Somebody to Love. Lily's face hurt from the giddy smile that stubbornly wouldn't leave.)

Upon opening her bag, she cursed herself for not having better organizational standards. Receipts crumbled under her hand wherever she dived in, as did the wrappers of many a candy pilfered from register bowls. She found an old plastic bag from one of her many convenience store stops and set it up as a rubbish bag. 

Hazel Eyes watched with open interest as she pulled out all those little receipts and sorted them into a little stack (travel expenses). She also pulled out various tubes of lipstick that all clashed with her hair; a small hair brush full of said ginger hair; several little toys from capsule machines, whose highlights included a plastic coke flavored slushie, and a surprisingly detailed tuna sushi.

When Lily pulled out an fake mushroom in an unfortunate phallic shape, she snorted with laughter when Hazel Eyes said, out loud, "what the fuck?" That got the attention of all good friends and they swiveled around to look; Lily waved it daintily and carried on organizing.

Two and a half hours in, they’d stopped their lip syncing when the train had become more crowded and disconcerted stares from their fellow passengers became more the norm. 

Lily was desperately uncomfortable. She'd kicked her suitcase more than once in her effort to find relief but to no avail. The guys seemed not to have this problem for they had mostly all dozed off in that 'pile of limbs' way most guys achieved.

Hazel Eyes was the last man standing in his group, however. At some point when Lily wasn't looking, he'd come into possession of a small paperback with a rather risque cover featuring a beautiful, pouting woman in a red gown in the arms of a devilishly rakish man. 

Lily almost gasped aloud in delight at that. She knew her way around enough trashy romance novels to know that his current spot in the book-- just past the middle-- was the Good Stuff. 

Hazel Eyes, this handsome man who'd she'd been silently but unsubtly flirting with for two and a half hours, was reading smut. 

And he actually seemed into it. Lily watched his journey of reactions, from the pink tint his face took every few pages, to every time his eyes widened. When he seemed to whisper _"no no no no no,''_ he looked over the cover at her, stricken, and Lily whispered, "just hold on."

Hazel Eyes nodded and, with a bracing breath, he turned the page. Lily turned away, toward the window, and tried not to think about ripping bodices and kissable lips. 

  
  


Three hours into the journey, Lily was still going, though not quite as strong as the beginning. It'd been fun cheering on Hazel Eyes though the romance novel but it had also done a number on her imagination, as had this entire journey.

Outside her window, thousands of lights flashed by as they had finally reached the city outskirts. It was beautiful, like grounded stars that pulsed with life and beckoned her to indulge in the city's delights. 

Perhaps she would some time. Maybe tonight, or maybe the next time her travels brought her this way. Her journey now was almost over though, she knew that. She started gathering her things and putting them in their appropriate places.

Across the aisle, the guys were stirring; they yawned into their hands, scrubbed at their faces, stretched. Lily definitely noticed the sliver of torso Hazel Eyes revealed when he brought his arms up high over his head. 

Her cheeks were a bit pink when he neutralized and ah, he smirked. Lily looked away, out the window to watch the blur of neon and flashing signs. 

It was almost over, this train ride, and Lily cursed Hazel Eyes for making this the most entertaining journey she'd had to date; her future ones had a high bar to compete with now. 

Was she strange, to be sad it was ending?

A body plunked itself down directly across from her, bumping into her suitcase, and Lily jolted upon seeing Hazel Eyes. There. Right there, two feet away instead of the ten from before. He smiled broadly, but gently, at her and she mutely removed her earbuds.

"I'm James," he said, voice a pleasant tenor and oh, with the same accent as hers, that was very good. He stuck his hand out and she grasped it, biting her lip at how easily hers fit, how warm he was.

"Lily," she replied, matching his smile and then nodded back at his bun haired friend, who now read the romance novel. "Did Isabella, or Claudia, or whoever win her Duke?"

"Sadly not yet," James shook his head regretfully, sliding his hand from hers to hold it to his heart in exaggerated sincerity. "Hopefully tomorrow, when I can steal the book back."

"Are you here on holiday?"

"I am. You?"

"Work," Lily replied, sort of marveling at having a proper conversation after three hours of… Whatever that had been. She’d touched him. "Leave back for England tomorrow."

James nodded, considering this, and he looked out the window, pensive. "Thing is…there's this great big city out here." He gestured up, and Lily startled dramatically, like she hasn't noticed. James' grin went playful. "Night's still young."

Lily smiled, devious and already exhilarated. "Your mates won't disown you for abandoning them?"

"We'll send you thank-you letters!" Bun-Man called out, and James threw him a rude gesture.

Lily was a travel blogger; she made it her business to explore and be adventurous. She could be bold. They _were_ in an enormous city brimming with exactly those things. Her body thrummed with possibility and she knew, with how he watched her with blatant interest, that James felt it too. The air between them felt charged with it.

Lily said, "there's a karaoke place near my hotel...D'you know Time of My Life?"


End file.
